# About the Vorkosigan books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [November 16, 2025, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913 "2025-11-16T23:01:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/161 "2026-04-26T11:34:58Z")
Yeah. Bujold says in the preface that it’s a real thing, which is why I’d like to learn more about it. In the book, they start by using more conventional techniques to cast a piece of metal in the approximate right shape, then they freeze water onto a known-good piece to make the die (which is very thick, and something like twice as massive as the workpiece), and then they use a bunch of explosives to ram the piece into the ice die, which destroys the die but reshapes the workpiece. And it’s definitely a work of engineering: Supposedly, they needed nanometer precision on the final piece. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/162 "2026-04-26T11:45:31Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Yeah. Bujold says in the preface that it’s a real thing, Could be, but my reaction is that Bujold misunderstood something and has got hold of the wrong end of the stick. For one thing, you wouldn’t expect a precision die like that to be cast on the actual shape – you have to allow for relaxation and cooling. I think ice has been used to create precision dies, but it still seems unlikely as the material of a precision die unless you are talking about some soft, temperature sensitive steam-formed material. Like a high-precision prototype bread loaf. One of the advantages of ice used in model making, to make models for molds, to make molds for dies, to make dies for metal-forming, is that ice was sometimes easier to work with than wood, or metal, or wax But what do I know? We only paid metal workers to make dies. Nothing flash. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/163 "2026-04-26T12:03:42Z")
Here’s a brief mention at the [Bujold mailing list](https://lists.herald.co.uk/pipermail/lois-bujold/2010-March/043001.html). You could drop her a line I suppose ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/164 "2026-04-26T12:18:13Z")
Somebody needs to write to Bujold and point out that Elli Quinn is still single. That will get her to write another book in the series so she can find Quinn a husband. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/165 "2026-04-26T12:21:52Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Yeah. Bujold says in the preface that it’s a real thing, which is why I’d like to learn more about it. In the book, they start by using more conventional techniques to cast a piece of metal in the approximate right shape, then they freeze water onto a known-good piece to make the die (which is very thick, and something like twice as massive as the workpiece), and then they use a bunch of explosives to ram the piece into the ice die, which destroys the die but reshapes the workpiece. Googling “Ice die” + “explosive forming” and variations on that gets me some results, but they don’t want to open on my computer and are either research papers or appear to be from the Department of Defense. I’m actually a little nervous about poking at that too much. But the snippets I see refer to it being used to explosively form large components. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/166 "2026-04-26T12:39:34Z")
Bujold is pretty responsive on Goodreads. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/167 "2026-04-26T12:58:45Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Somebody needs to write to Bujold and point out that Elli Quinn is still single. That will get her to write another book in the series so she can find Quinn a husband That might well work. One thing that bothers me about Bujold is that she has a bad case of Everybody Must Get Partnered. It’ll be a good book if she does write it, though. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/168 "2026-04-26T13:02:21Z")
> [@susan](#): > > Bujold is pretty responsive on Goodreads. She does tend to get a bit snippy (for Minnesota values of snippy) about the “you should write [this specific thing]” posts, though. Understandably so, since she must get a whole lot more of those requests than any person could write in a lifetime. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/169 "2026-04-26T13:09:26Z")
What I’ve always wished was that Bujold would go back in time in her series. Write a book about Piotr and his campaigns against the Cetegandans, for example. It would be interesting to see him as a protagonist in his prime rather than as a cranky old semi-antagonist. Plus it would be interesting to see Barrayar before it got modernized. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/170 "2026-04-26T15:33:49Z")
She has said IIRC that she’s no longer in the mood to wrote the kind of sad and gruesome book that would be needed for such times in Barrayar. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/171 "2026-04-26T15:42:53Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I’d love to read more about ice-die formation, but Googling for that exact phrase just gives a bunch of hits about tie-dying (note to Google: “dye” and “die” are not the same word), I got five hits, four of which were references to the book, and the other a German magazine which just happens to have those three words in a row – _ICE_ as part of the name of a rock group, and _die_ as the female definite article. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/172 "2026-04-27T23:41:33Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > No doubt, some folks are pretty sure that he’s one and the same, but they don’t want to do anything based on that information until they’re positive - because anything that looks that hinky might be some sort of trap they don’t want fall for. > [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > (probably too vague to be _really_ a spoiler, but spoilered just in case). And Miles himself comments that the cover was getting threadbare by the end. I’m pretty sure there was a comment at one point along the lines of, “We’ll know the Cetagandans have figured it out when they stop trying to kill Admiral Naismith, and start complaining in the Galactic Press about Barrayaran interference in their activities.” ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/173 "2026-04-27T23:51:39Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > I’m pretty sure there was a comment at one point along the lines of, “We’ll know the Cetagandans have figured it out when they stop trying to kill Admiral Naismith, and start complaining in the Galactic Press about Barrayaran interference in their activities.” I recall that. Bet they were peeved that they figured it out _after_ he retired the persona. Their little dig at him was IMHO typical Cetagandan one-upmanship to cover the embarrassment of the fact that they’d discovered the truth too late for it to matter. ---
**Author:** ![vbob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vbob/32/4439_2.png) [@vbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vbob)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/174 "2026-04-27T23:55:16Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > What I’ve always wished was that Bujold would go back in time in her series It may be heresy, but Archive Of Our Own has some REALLY good fan-fic in the Vorkosiverse. [and some really bad, and some raunchy…] A Bit Too Much Good Work is a pitch-perfect complement to Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance [Reddit - Please wait for verification](https://www.reddit.com/r/Vorkosigan/comments/9ev653/does_anyone_know_of_some_good_bujold_fanfiction/#) ---
**Author:** ![vbob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vbob/32/4439_2.png) [@vbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vbob)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/175 "2026-04-27T23:58:50Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > she has a bad case of Everybody Must Get Partnered. But she does such gloriously unexpected things with former partners, instead of just throwing them away, or using them as evil foils. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2026, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/176 "2026-04-29T01:51:33Z")
New Penric! [Amazon.com: Darksight Dare (Penric & Desdemona) eBook : Bujold, Lois McMaster: Kindle Store](https://www.amazon.com/Darksight-Penric-Desdemona-McMaster-Bujold-ebook/dp/B0GX2TBF7L/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=CDD5UFCWYOFM&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.8Ex-wdiM3VcSn2VF7bK6kw.7L37d7Fn9F8-hdf32qh-N_lJI71WkgSlpP5BFtXrDi4&dib_tag=se&keywords=darkside+dare+bujold&qid=1777427374&sbo=QS21L9be7oZFAGyl4IXR%2Bw%3D%3D&sprefix=darkside+dare%2Caps%2C220&sr=8-1) ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2026, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/177 "2026-04-29T02:13:57Z")
> [@vbob](#): > > It may be heresy, but Archive Of Our Own has some REALLY good fan-fic in the Vorkosiverse. [and some really bad, and some raunchy…] A Bit Too Much Good Work is a pitch-perfect complement to Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance Written by a Doper, too, I hear 😀 Now, if only I could work up that sort of writing mojo for something actually salable… ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2026, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/178 "2026-04-29T10:52:08Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Somebody needs to write to Bujold and point out that Elli Quinn is still single. That will get her to write another book in the series so she can find Quinn a husband. Well, she sort of kind of did. She’s become the baby-mamma for Ethan and for a significant fraction of Athos. One of her insights as a science-fiction author was that, in a society with uterine replicators, “who I have sex with”, “who I want to blend my genes with”, and “who I want to raise my children” can be three different people. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2026, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/179 "2026-04-29T15:01:10Z")
> [@susan](#): > > New Penric! Thanks for that!! ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2026, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/180 "2026-04-29T17:20:20Z")
Thanks for the suggestion, I’m only a couple of chapters in, but I’m enjoying it immensely. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913.md?page=10)